Voters in Saugatuck, foreground, and Douglas will choose whether to merge their governments Nov. 5. Advocates and opponents are bickering.MLive.com File

ALLEGAN COUNTY, MI – Citizens for Independent and Cooperative Communities, the group seeking to keep the cities of Saugatuck and Douglas from merging into a single government, had a surge in fundraising in recent months, growing donations to nearly $10,000 for its campaign fund.

Still, that’s a nickel on the dollar to what has been poured into the campaign by supporters of the merger, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Allegan County clerk. The Consolidated Government Committee reported $154,475 in direct contributions, plus $44,000 of in-kind contributions mostly from donated office space over the past four years.

The campaign has gotten thousands of dollars in contributions from individuals and businesses both within and outside the two communities, including $17,500 from Haworth, for example, and $2,500 from Dick DeVos.

“Dick believes such a merger will improve local governance and thereby be a benefit to the citizens,” said Greg McNeilly, a family spokesman in Grand Rapids. “(The big-dollar contributions are) evidence of the support the idea has overall. Every contribution is an exercise of political speech, in this case, in support of the concept of improving local government through the efficiencies of consolidation.

The largest donations to the anti-merger group came from from Joyce Petter, James Vanderkodde and Gary Alpers, each of whom gave $1,000. The group has spent $7,418 on the campaign, more than half of that on signs, posters, banners, buttons, postage and other supplies, with the rest spent largely on newspaper advertisements, according to campaign records and Freedom of Information Act requests.

The pro-merger group, meanwhile, has spent almost nine times as much on campaign consulting alone. Jim Storey, an Allegan County commissioner, has been paid $64,017 so far, according to the latest spending report which chronicles expenses through Oct. 20.

The group also has spent about $30,000 on legal fees, $12,000 on voter research, $11,600 on surveying, $9,000 on newspaper ads, $8,000 on postage and mailings and $1,500 on its Web site. It all adds up to $138,417 so far, records show.

“Nobody’s putting that kind of money into this thing unless there’s something in it for them, but what is it? I just don’t get it,” said Matt Balmer, a former Douglas mayor who is among those against the consolidation. “I don’t understand it and I don’t think most people in the community understand it.

“We were just shocked at the money (that has been) coming in.”

CGC formed in 2010 and raised more than $21,000 that year before it took in $60,000 in 2011 and about $32,000 in 2012. Money has continued to flow in this year. Eight CGC members and advisors have pitched in more than $73,000.

Bobbie Gaunt, CGC co-chairwoman, said much of the money has been spent advancing the concept from idea to ballot proposal.

“Just to get to this point in time, it has cost us 3-and-a-half years just to comply with the state’s regulations in terms of boundaries, and the costs that have gone into engineering and maps and legal opinions probably run upwards of $40,000,” said Gaunt, who has contributed $14,500 of her own money to the campaign, in a recent interview.

Projected savings from government consolidation could be spent on the harbor and invested in economic development, she said.

“We have a harbor that is filing with silt every day, that is currently not navigable, and we know that it’s going to cost millions to fix the problem permanently,” Gaunt said. “And it is that harbor and the water that brings tourists to Saugatuck and Douglas.

“We’re being pressed by South Haven, as well as by Holland, in terms of very aggressively going after the tourist industry.”

The Tuesday merger vote needs approval from both communities, with roughly equal populations of 1,000, to go forward.